Twitter Lists lets users pigeonhole their friends

Twitter is testing a new feature allowing the more anal of its users to compile lists of Twitter accounts.

"For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense," explains Nick Kallen on the company blog.

Lists are public by default - although they can be made private - marking one difference from the TweetDeck service. They are linked from the user's profile, allowing other users to subscribe.

"This means lists have the potential to be an important new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts," says Kallen.

The feature should make it easier for users to cope with their enormous popularity, organising tweets into categories for old friends, co-workers and the like - or for their favourite tech news (hint) - we're on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tgdaily.

There'll be information available for developers in the next few days.